My Library My History Books on Google Play the Art of People
Past Jason Matthews
The official name for interested authors is the Google Books Partner Program. It launched in Dec. 2010 as Google Editions, then became Google Ebooks, then got engulfed in the massive Android supermarket known every bit Google Play. How would I describe the feel of uploading and selling ebooks there? Information technology reminds me of a movie title: The Skilful, the Bad and the Ugly.
The Good
They really sell ebooks. Over the past two years I've sold more than with Google than at Barnes & Noble or Kobo. That was a pleasant surprise since Google doesn't depend on volume sales to stay adrift or brand a defended device for reading as the others do. My prediction is for sales to continue to grow though I'm no Vegas-insider.
Purchases tin be made in forty-four countries with ongoing expansion. That'southward quite an audience. In thirty-six of those countries, authors (called partners) can upload ebooks. In xx of the thirty-six, Google volition pay partners with direct bank deposits (EFT) equally is the case for North America and about of Europe. Otherwise payments are with wire transfers.
Search-ability is Google's forte. They scan your unabridged document and factor that into the globe'south largest search engine. I've tested this past copying random sentences from deep within my books and pasting them into a Google search. For example, try this sentence in a search: Mara reminded me of the pictures I had seen of Rose.
(Click image to enlarge.)
Lo and behold, the Google book result appears at the very meridian of the list, and not i other retailer shows up further down.
It as well works with character names and subject matter, though for popular search terms you may have to curl down a few pages. This is especially helpful for authors with rarer subjects or names within their books. Think that Google searches can be tailored merely for book results (though the example above is a general Web search).
EPUB files on Google Play support enhanced ebook features (EEBs) such as embedded sound and video. They also support fixed layouts and give advice on how to implement the HTML code for that.
Perhaps the best reason to publish in that location: less contest exists from other indie authors at Google Play than at Amazon and other retailers.
Smashwords, a distributor that sends ebooks to major retailers and library channels, doesn't ship to Google Play. Neither does Draft2Digital. The simply way I'chiliad enlightened of is to upload directly. This eliminates a lot of indie authors presumably for the bad and ugly reasons listed below.
The Bad
Uploading in that location is challenging. It'south as if the book store engineers decided to reinvent the wheel without taking a peek at how Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords and other retailers handle the fine art of receiving cover images and interior files.
Instead, Google Play requires yous to do things that feel odd, like using ISBN-related titles for your files. For example, i of my Google books has a cover image and interior file that are called 9781452402383_frontcover and 9781452402383_content respectively. If I had tried to upload them with the file names I'd used for every other retailer, it wouldn't take worked.
Yous'll need to upload interior documents as EPUB and/or PDF files. Google recommends that y'all send both types since they offer two display modes: original pages and reflowable text.
Providing the PDF will ensure that readers can view the book in its original layout, while the EPUB will allow a more than customizable experience. Many authors are unfamiliar with EPUB, working in MS Give-and-take and uploading that or saving it equally HTML Spider web Page Filtered.
At that place are gratis and paid solutions for making EPUB conversions including:
- Calibre
- Sigil
- 2epub
- and others
You can even download and save an EPUB file if yous've uploaded MS Word straight at Kobo or Barnes & Noble, which they convert to EPUB for their devices.
Unfortunately there is no preview mode, which irks me. Amazon has an amazing previewer, and the others have made dramatic improvements in this arena. The only style to preview your book at Google Play is to expect until it has candy and then view the sample.
There is niggling client support although it has gotten improve. An electronic mail to support leads to this automated reply: Cheers for contacting usa. Nosotros'll follow up with you but if we need more than information or have additional data to share. (Feels similar they're copping attitude.)
In the past I've waited a week or more for a response. Recently I tested the service with an electronic mail and got a reply inside a few hours when I included a screen-share of the problem, which is recommended.
Tip: include screen-shares in correspondence to entertain bored Google Books employees.
The Ugly
It feels similar a wild-goose chase searching for info to achieve things. I've reread tutorial articles many times simply to notice myself dorsum at the starting point, wishing Google allowed comments following the article that probable would help me solve bug. Instead they merely offering a rating organization if the commodity was helpful or not.
To empathize my frustration, play effectually at their Help Center for awhile: https://support.google.com/books/.
Worse than that, it's a serious chore to get the volume's description and author bio to have proper formatting, even using the simplest formatting. The description may look awful one time posted every bit this one did:
(Click prototype to enlarge.)
Information technology appears the best way to make formatting bear information technology is to retype it on the editing page, which is annoying if you lot have multiple books and all that stuff is already written.
For the 99% of u.s.a. who desire to copy and paste the info from elsewhere, it's necessary to hitting the remove formatting button in the description box and and so manually re-enter the formatting such as for paragraph returns and bold type.
The remove formatting button is highlighted in the yellow circle below:
(Click image to overstate.)
I had to play effectually with multiple formatting changes for the clarification and author bio boxes, so expect about six hours to see how those changes appeared, and so repeat until everything was acceptable. Information technology took five days and over a dozen attempts, which is either embarrassing for me or a sign that Google needs to prepare this.
Some other ugly attribute, and this may exist improbable, is the off-adventure Google might dump the whole book programme. There'due south a trust issue with Google that doesn't be at other behemoths like Amazon. Google has scrapped plenty of programs equally they did with Reader, Wave, Videos, Buzz and more. These expressionless programs are referred to as the Google Graveyard, and their numbers rise every bit Google experiments with software and the convenience of really deep pockets.
My concern for selling ebooks is that they don't brand a dedicated e-reading device. In the past they had a partnership with the iRiver Story, but that device didn't integrate into the formation of Google Play, and the iRiver has since been discontinued.
Who buys Google books? My guess is people who read on cell phones and various tablets. Does Google really want to compete with Amazon, Apple and others for the long term? We'll see. The fact that they are selling ebooks and making money on each sale suggests they won't dump the program. Just if they did, information technology wouldn't exist a daze.
The Verdict
What kind of author should upload to Google Play? Those willing to go the extra mile, knowing it's a bit more technical, less intuitive, far more annoying, and the gamble/rewards are still embedded in a gray expanse. Selling ebooks at that place may turn out to be a prosperous alternative or a total waste material of time. (Sadly, I just described myself.)
If you're interested in getting started, visit this link: https://play.google.com/books/publish/signup.
Have y'all sold your books on Google Play? If so, tell the states about your experience in the comments.
Jason Matthews 
of eBook Success 4 Gratuitous is Contributing Writer for The Book Designer. He is also a novelist, blogger and self-publishing coach. He works with writers around the world through every phase of book creation and marketing.
Y'all can learn more about Jason here.
Photo: bigstockphoto.com
Source: https://www.thebookdesigner.com/selling-ebooks-on-google-play-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
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